Torvalds Defends Linux Mark Enforcement

Facing increasing criticism from the open source community, Linux founder Linus Torvalds defended his lawyer's actions in an e-mail to the Linux Kernel Mailing List.

In July, the lawyer contacted 90 Australian companies serving them with a cease and desist letter over the Linux trademark. The notices were sent with Torvalds' blessing. The companies could choose to sublicense the Linux name for a fee of anywhere from $200 to $5,000, the letter stated.

What followed was an avalanche of criticism aimed at Torvalds, claiming he was personally attempting to make money off of the success of Linux, which has been developed by thousands of programmers.

Some went to far as to brand Torvalds a hypocrite after he criticized software patents earlier this month, yet is standing behind trademark enforcement now. Torvalds did not comment on that issue.

However, he denied any money was being made by him or others, saying Saturday that the non-profit group that defends the trademark, the Linux Mark Institute, actually "has so far historically always lost money" due to legal costs.

In 2000, Torvalds explained the process of trademark enforcement in another e-mail to the mailing list. He said that even the smallest case of infrigement needs to be dealt with, "because otherwise the really bad guys can use as their defense that 'Hey, we may have misused it, but look at those other cases that they didn't go after, they obviously don't care.'"